At least 14 people were killed and 37 declared missing as flash floods hit northwestern Iran, state media reported today.
	Torrential rains that began on Friday lashed East Azerbaijan province, with state television showing images of flooded houses and cars carried away by the surging water.
	The prefect of Ajabshir district told the official IRNA news agency that rescue teams had recovered the bodies of three women and nine men.
	State television said two more people were killed in nearby Azarshahr. It said 37 people were still missing.

14 dead in Iran floods

PTI Automatic

The number of Islamic State fighters killed by a massive US bomb in eastern Afghanistan has nearly tripled to at least 90, Afghan officials said today.
	"At least 92 Daesh (IS) fighters were killed in the bombing," Achin district governor Esmail Shinwari told AFP. Nangarhar provincial spokesman Attaullah Khogyani gave a toll of 90.

Number of IS fighters killed by US bomb jumps to 90

North Korea is prepared to respond to any nuclear attack by the United States in kind, the country's number two official said today.
	"We're prepared to respond to an all-out war with an all-out war and we are ready to hit back with nuclear attacks of our own style against any nuclear attacks," Choe Ryong-Hae said in a speech at a ceremony before a large military parade started, which was broadcast live by the North's Korean Central TV.

NKorea prepared to respond to any nuclear attack in kind: No 2

Pope Francis deplored the suffering of migrants, victims of racism and persecuted Christians as some 20,000 worshippers gathered at Rome's Colosseum to hear his Good Friday prayer.
	"Christ, our only saviour, we turn towards you this year with eyes lowered in shame," the pope yesterday told the crowds outside the former gladiators' battleground, their faces lit by candlelight.
	"Shame for all the images of devastation, destruction and shipwrecks which have become ordinary in our lives," Francis said in an apparent reference to Mediterranean migrant disasters that have left at least 590 people feared people dead this year.
	The pope also spoke of the child abuse scandals that have rocked Catholicism in recent years, expressing "shame for all the times when bishops, priests and the religious have scandalised and hurt" the Church.
	"Shame for the innocent blood, spilt daily, of women, children, migrants, people persecuted for the colour of their skin or for their social or ethnic group ..

Pope blasts migrant suffering in Easter prayer

North Korea's military forces were massed in Pyongyang today for a show of strength by leader Kim Jong-Un as tensions mount over his nuclear ambitions.
	Hundreds of flatbed trucks packed with soldiers lined the banks of the Taedong river ahead of a parade through the North Korean capital.
	Ostensibly the event was to mark the 105th anniversary of the birth of Kim's grandfather, the North's founder Kim II- Sung - a date known as the 'Day of the Sun' in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the country's official name.
	But it is also intended to send an unmistakable message to Washington, Seoul, Tokyo and other capitals about the isolated, nuclear-armed North's military might.
	Pyongyang is under multiple sets of United Nations sanctions over its atomic and ballistic missile programmes, and has ambitions to build a rocket capable of delivering a warhead to the US mainland - something US President Donald Trump has vowed "won't happen".
	It has carried out five nuclear tests - two ..

Troops mass in Pyongyang show of strength

Hundreds of civilians and fighters who have been under crippling siege for more than two years left four Syrian towns in fleets of buses today under a delayed evacuation deal.
	Men, women and children packed onto buses leaving government-controlled Fuaa and Kafraya and rebel-held Madaya and Zabadani, with many expressing despair at not knowing when they might return.
	"When I first went onto the bus, I broke down from sadness, I fell on the ground and they had to help me," said Fuaa resident Abu Hussein.
	"I just couldn't bear it."
	The deal to evacuate the towns is the latest in a string of such agreements through Syria's six-year civil war.
	They have been touted by the government as the best way to end the fighting but rebels say they are forced out by siege and bombardment.
	Critics say deals are permanently changing the ethnic and religious map, but in an exclusive interview with AFP this week President Bashar al-Assad insisted the evacuations were only temporary and people would 

Buses evacuate hundreds from four besieged Syria towns

Senegal announced three days of mourning today for the victims of a massive fire at a Muslim religious retreat this week, as the death toll from the catastrophe rose to 25.
	The blaze broke out on Wednesday afternoon as worshippers belonging to the Tijaniyya Muslim group gathered near the town of Medina Gounass in southeastern Senegal, engulfing straw shelters erected for the pilgrims.
	President Macky Sall visited the site on Friday and confirmed that Gambians and Mauritanians were also among the victims in footage broadcast on Senegal's RTS television.
	"Taking account of the number of victims, as this morning another has passed away, we now have 25 dead and I have decided to announce today three days of national mourning, with flags flying at half-mast," Sall said.
	Senegalese media reported today that police suspect a gas canister exploded as the pilgrims prepared tea at the retreat site.
	Members of the powerful Tijaniyya Muslim brotherhood gather in their thousands to worship at 

Senegal declares 3 days of mourning as fire death toll rises

Thousands of Christians from around the world marked Good Friday in Jerusalem's Old City, retracing the steps Jesus Christ is believed to have taken carrying his cross to his crucifixion.
	Through the Old City's narrow alleyways, pilgrims and Palestinian Christians carried wooden crosses, icons and flags of their respective countries in a procession under heavy surveillance from Israeli police.
	Like every year in the runup to Easter, they retraced the 14 Stations of the Cross and walked to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre where Jesus Christ is believed to be buried.
	Inside the church, Egyptian Coptic Christian pilgrim Sameera Haleem, 52, prayed for protection for her family after deadly church bombings in her country on Palm Sunday.
	"Parting with loved ones is very hard but they are martyrs," she said of the 45 people who died in the bombings in the cities of Tanta and Alexandria that were claimed by the Islamic State group.
	"Copts being targeted and killed only serves to ...

Christian pilgrims commemorate Good Friday in Jerusalem

An elite US boarding school that educated the likes of John F Kennedy, Michael Douglas and Ivanka Trump has released a report detailing decades of alleged sexual abuse.
	Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, Connecticut, where tuition today costs in excess of $43,500, released a report detailing alleged sexual misconduct by 12 former teachers against students from 1963 to 2010.
	The school commissioned the report after allegations came to light and in the wake of an "alarming" increase in reports from other schools. A number of prestigious private schools in the United States have been beset by similar accusations.
	   Choate said it had substantiated abuse dating back to the 1960s, with the greatest number in the 1980s and a "handful" of reports of sexual misconduct in the 2010s.
	Both male and female former students were among the victims, it said. Claims had not been substantiated against current staff, it said.
	Graduates described former Choate staff engaging with them in ...

Top US boarding school details decades of sexual abuse

As United Airlines struggles to recover from the public relations disaster sparked when a passenger was violently removed from a flight in Chicago, the airport security officers involved in the incident are facing tough scrutiny.
	Officials in the midwestern US city are looking at why the three officers -- all now placed on administrative leave --  were on the plane in the first place, amid criticism from elected officials and the United pilots' union.
	The officers -- who are unarmed and meant to back up local law enforcement -- were called by airline employees after the passenger, David Dao, refused to give up his seat for crew that needed to be repositioned for other flights.
	The resulting altercation left Dao with a broken nose, concussion and other injuries, according to his lawyers, who have said he is likely to sue.
	But Jeff Redding, who is in charge of safety and security at the Chicago Department of Aviation, which operates O'Hare International Airport, says airport ...

Chicago airport security under fire over United fiasco

A suspect has been detained in the Democratic Republic of Congo over the kidnap and killing last month of two UN experts, an American and a dual Swedish- Chilean woman, military authorities said today.
	Chief military prosecutor, Major General Joseph Ponde, said two men had been arrested for allegedly killing American Michael Sharp and Swedish-Chilean Zaida Catalan in central Kasai, where hundreds of people have died in violence since September.
	One of the suspects, however, had escaped with the help of four police officers guarding them, Ponde told a news conference.
	The remaining suspect was being interrogated in Kananga, capital of diamond-rich Kasai, which has been gripped by a violent tribal uprising since traditional chieftain Kamwina Nsapu was killed in August last year.
	The bodies of the two UN experts, who were kidnapped along with four Congolese nationals on March 12 while investigating whether a UN arms embargo was being violated, were found in a grave two weeks ...

DRCongo detains suspect in killing of two UN experts

Rescue vessels in the Mediterranean worked flat out today to rescue over 2,000 people from flimsy dinghies as exhausted saviours accused the EU of turning a blind eye to the crisis.
	The Italian coast guard and five privately-run rescue boats plucked migrants from 16 overcrowded dinghies and three wooden vessels.
	After non-stop back-to-back rescues, a total of 2,074 people were brought to safety, the coastguard said, a day after a shipwreck left at least 97 migrants feared drowned off Libya.
	The Doctors Without Borders (MSF) boats Prudence and Aquarius rescued some 1,145 people from nine different dinghies in exhausting operations it said proved their presence off the North African coast was needed.
	The rest were picked up by the coastguard, the Phoenix -- run by the Maltese organisation Moas -- the German NGO Sea Eye and the German Jugend's Iuventa.
	Rescuers said a teenager had been found dead in one of the rubber boats today during the "very difficult" rescues.
	EU's border ...

Frenzied rescues in Med save over 2,000 migrants

Facebook today said it disrupted an international fake account operation that was firing off inauthentic "likes" and bogus comments to win friends it would then pound with spam.
	Facebook's security team spent six months fighting to neutralize what they saw as a coordinated campaign, according to Shabnam Shaik, a company security manager.
	"Our systems were able to identify a large portion of this illegitimate activity -- and to remove a substantial number of inauthentic likes," Shaik said in a blog post.
	"By disrupting the campaign now, we expect that we will prevent this network of spammers from reaching its end goal of sending inauthentic material to large numbers of people."
	The ring used accounts in a number of countries including Bangladesh, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia.
	The group tried to mask its activities with tactics like connecting with the social network through "proxy" servers to disguise where "likes," posts or other communications were originating, according to ...

Facebook disrupts suspected spam operation

Venezuelan authorities said today they arrested two opposition youth leaders, the latest move in a crackdown on anti-government protests that have left five dead.
	Jose Sanchez and Alejandro Sanchez were arrested "for organising terrorist acts and assaults against the peace of the country," Interior Minister Nestor Reverol wrote on Twitter.
	The two are youth leaders of the Justice First party, one of the main groups in the center-right opposition coalition pushing for President Nicolas Maduro to be removed from office.
	Venezuelan authorities drew international criticism last week for banning the party's most prominent figure, Henrique Capriles, from public office for 15 years.
	Reverol said the two detainees "confessed taking part in this week's violence."
	Five people, including a 13-year-old boy have been killed since April 6 in clashes with riot police during a wave of protests against Maduro.
	Justice First rejected Reverol's allegations. It wrote on its Twitter account that the 

Venezuela arrests two opposition leaders

Vogue Arabia, the style bible that sought to put the Middle East on the international fashion map, has dismissed and replaced its Saudi princess editor after just two editions.
	The announcement came one day after Deena Aljuhani Abdulaziz, the mother of three who previously set up a members-only fashion business introducing edgy designers to the Gulf, told media outlets that she had been sacked.
	Nervora, the Dubai-based publishers, announced Friday that Manuel Arnaut, who began his career at Vogue Portugal, had been appointed editor-in-chief effective May 7.
	He is the second man appointed to lead an edition of Vogue in less than a week, following the appointment of Ghana-born Briton Edward Enninful to British Vogue.
	Even in the cut-throat world of glossy magazine publishing, it was an astonishingly quick exit for a woman widely known in fashion circles and feted for putting US supermodel Gigi Hadid in a jewel-encrusted veil on the inaugural cover.
	"I refused to compromise when I ..

Vogue Arabia replaces Saudi princess editor with man

Canada announced new sanctions against Syria today in response to its alleged April 4 chemical weapons attack, freezing assets and banning transactions with senior leaders of the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
	The latest sanctions were Canada's first against Syria and Assad since 2014 when a conservative government was in office.
	Assad, his family, government and the Syrian military hierarchy have long been the targets of sanctions.
	But the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau extended the sanctions to 27 additional high-ranking regime officials, said Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland.
	Among them were three generals -- Adib Salameh, Jawdat Salbi Mawas and Tahir Hamid Khalil -- accused of ordering attacks on civilian targets and torturing regime opponents.
	"Today's new sanctions against key officials are part of our continued efforts to increase pressure on the Assad regime to stop the violence against innocent children, women and men," Freeland said.
	"Last 

Canada announces sanctions against key Syrian officials

The World Food Programme (WFP) today condemned the deaths of three contract workers in fighting that engulfed South Sudan's second-largest city Wau earlier this week.
	At least 16 civilians were killed in clashes that started with a rebel ambush of government troops near Wau on Sunday before spreading into the city the following day, according to the UNMISS peacekeeping mission.
	The WFP said in a statement that three South Sudanese who had been contracted as porters were killed while trying to get through the fighting to a warehouse used by the food agency in the town.
	Two were hacked to death with machetes and one was shot, the statement said.
	"We are outraged and heartbroken by the deaths of our colleagues, who worked every day to help provide life-saving food to millions of their fellow countrymen," WFP country director Joyce Luma said in the statement.
	The clash in Wau was the latest spasm of violence to rock South Sudan since a power struggle between President Salva Kiir and .

WFP says 3 contract workers killed in South Sudan

Russia today criticised the world's chemical weapons watchdog for not sending experts to the site of an alleged chemical attack in Syria, backing up President Bashar al-Assad's regime.
	"We consider it unacceptable to analyse events from a distance," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a press conference in Moscow with his counterparts from Syria and Iran.
	Lavrov said Assad's opponents had "in essence" given guarantees for the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to visit the location where at least 87 people died, but the watchdog was refusing to send them.
	"They say still that it is not very safe, but they cannot put forward convincing arguments," Russia's top diplomat said.
	Russia has rejected accusations from the West that its Assad's forces were responsible for a chemical attack and has lashed out at the US for its cruise missile strikes last week against a Syrian air base.
	The OPCW said yesterday that a fact-finding mission was analysing samples gathered ..

Russia slams watchdog probe of alleged Syria chemical attack

Egyptian Copts observed a solemn Good Friday with prayers and fasting, as the community reeled from two church bombings that killed dozens on Palm Sunday.
	The government had declared a state of emergency and called in the army to protect "vital" installations following last week's suicide bombings claimed by the Islamic State group.
	But in a reminder of sectarianism Copts often complain about, police officials said Muslims fought with Christians who tried praying in an abandoned home in a southern village yesterday then set fire to four nearby homes.
	Police reinforcements were sent to the town in the province of Minya, they said.
	Today, Copts attended churches across the country to commemorate the day they believe Jesus Christ was crucified.
	The services mark the Stations of the Cross, representing the Biblical account of the cross-bearing Christ as he was led to his crucifixion and burial.
	The rites were especially mournful for the Christian minority following last Sunday's ...

Egypt Copts mark solemn Good Friday

A Kuwaiti man suspected to be a member of the Islamic State group was today deported by the Philippines to face charges at home, a justice department official said.
	Hussein Al-Dhafiri, one of the two suspected IS members arrested in the Philippines last month, was flown out of the country to Kuwait, undersecretary Erickson Balmes said.
	A statement from the Kuwaiti embassy said Dhafiri was due to be tried in his home country.
	"Evidence obtained by Kuwait's state security agencies also showed that he is planning to carry out terroristic attacks in the State of Kuwait," the statement said.
	Dhafiri was arrested along with a Syrian woman Rahaf Zina, also named as a member of the jihadist group.
	Zina and Dhafiri married after her high-ranking IS commander husband was killed in Syria, said Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre.
	He earlier said the pair had entered the country as part of plans for "a bombing operation" in the Philippines or Kuwait.
	Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte ...

Suspected IS member deported from Philippines

Tanzania has ordered the extradition to the United States of an alleged drug kingpin said to have overseen a global network smuggling heroin and cocaine, a judicial source said today.
	The ruling on Ali Khatib Haji Hassan, known as Shkuba, and two other Tanzanian associates came Wednesday at a court in Dar es Salaam after a request from the US, according to the source who spoke on condition of anonymity.
	A judge "authorised the extradition of the three men to the United States to answer the charges against them. But they remain in Tanzania until the government organises their transfer," the source told AFP.
	Hassan was designated a "major international drug kingpin" by the United States in 2016.
	The US accuses him of smuggling "multi-ton shipments of heroin and cocaine to Africa, Europe, Asia, and North America via his East Africa-based drug trafficking organisation."
	Hassan was arrested in Tanzania in 2014 for smuggling 210 kilogrammes (462 pounds) of heroin seized two years ...

AFP

AFP

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